INTERVIEW: These teenage dissidents are listening to the past
Photo: The Listening Room features Tim Palmer, Taylor Petracek, Matthew Carrasco, Alex Chemin and Sara Rahman. Photo courtesy of Bryan James Hamilton / Provided by Emily Owens PR with permission.
The premise for the new play The Listening Room is both unique and unsettling, no doubt making for an invigorating night at the theater. In Michaela Jeffery’s show, a group of teenage dissidents known as the Listeners congregate on the fringes of a remote desert society and search for evidence of previous civilizations, according to press notes. The past that they are trying to recapture has faded from society’s memory, and perhaps the only way to find it again is by using antiquated instruments of the 21st century, such as a telescope.
The Listening Room comes to New York City’s New Ohio Theatre courtesy of the Nylon Fusion Theatre Company. Ivette Dumeng and Lori Kee direct a cast that consists of Matthew Carrasco, Alex Chernin, Tim Palmer, Taylor Petracek and Sara Rahman.
Jeffery is an accomplished writer whose previous credits include The Extractionist, Persephone Bound and Wolf of the Ringstrasse, among other works. She is based in Alberta, Canada, and this production of The Listening Room, which continues off-Broadway until Dec. 21, is the New York premiere of the 85-minute work.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Jeffery about the new futuristic show. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How would you describe the play to someone thinking about buying a ticket?
The Listening Room is a fun, dark, speculative science fiction story (think Dune meets Firefly meets Battelstar Galactica) about a handful of teenage dissidents living on the fringes of a remote desert society called The Earie. They are practitioners of the almost-completely-obliterated art of ‘Listening’ — using antique 21st century radio telescopes to scavenge fragments of information ricocheting around in deep space, initially broadcast by the now extinct society that preceded them (ours).
Taking place on the eve of a high-profile disciplinary hearing that will determine the Listeners’ futures, The Listening Room is a fast-paced, political ride with a powerful conclusion. It is a love letter to young revolutionaries — a story about the cost of doing what you believe to be right, and fighting to keep alive love, curiosity and empathy in a mercenary world that would exploit these traits to its advantage.
(It has also got an insanely impressive, immersive sound design!)
Why make these central characters teenagers rather than another age?
I really think we are able to understand the world differently as teenagers than we can as adults. I do. There is a clarity, intensity and urgency to the way in which adolescents respond to things and engage with society that I think gets muddied or diluted as we age. I have three younger siblings (two of whom are still in high school), all of whom are braver than I am. They are fiercely curious, intelligent, compassionate, engaged and willing to go toe-to-toe with any number of a thousand day-to-day injustices I long ago resigned myself to accepting.
I think they feel more deeply — like, they live closer to the surface of their bodies or something. There is a rawness I remember about my own adolescence, like walking around with all of my wires stripped — nerve endings exposed at all times. I remember that being 17 felt incendiary, volatile, like I was liable to combust if anyone looked at me the wrong way (or, you know, the right way).
From a dramatic perspective, there is so much deeply enjoyable stuff to be discovered in performance when the premise is: five incredibly raw, volatile, vulnerable, manically impassioned young people literally sequestered all together ‘on the cusp of re-making the word.’ It’s a veritable buffet of amazing theatrical possibility.
Did the characters of the Listeners come first during the development process, or was it the story that came first?
Mostly the characters emerged first, and then the world they inhabited, and then the story.
From some of the very earliest writing work I ever did on this piece, it has always been informed by a strong sense of place. In this case, a vast desert. The very first scene I ever wrote (no longer actually part of the show) was a meeting between two of the characters out on the dunes at night, amongst the giant ribs of a whale skeleton (as their desert was actually a dried-up ocean floor).
As the characters took stronger shape, their relationships with both other characters we actually meet, as well as those we never see on stage, became more dimensional in my imagination. I think from that point forward, it was easy to start to imagine a society, and to speculate on what sorts of fractures might exist within it, and who those fractures would put in the greatest jeopardy. This is really what a lot of the plot springs from.
What has it been like working with directors Ivette Dumeng and Lori Kee?
Ivette and Lori are amazing! Because I’m so far away, a lot of our work has been remote — over the phone and via email mostly.
It’s genuinely so very, very cool to have these inspiring ladies calling me up to talk about the thousand and one details that go into putting together a piece like this, and every time we connect I learn something new.
I’m so thrilled with all of their work so far, and so eager to see what they are [imagining] for this story I care so much about.
What’s the theater scene like in Alberta, Canada?
Well, I’m biased because I grew up here, but I think it’s pretty special. There is a great community of artists — performers, musicians, visual artists, writers (the list goes on) — who make this place their home because it’s an exceptional place to try something new. Risk is rewarded. Bravery is encouraged. There is an eagerness and openness surrounding collaborations and partnerships that make it possible to engage one another as resources in a way that I really haven’t seen too many other places. Plus, here in Calgary, we’re about an hour’s drive from the Rocky Mountains and some of the best skiing, hiking and camping in the world, so it’s hard to complain about that.
I’m fortunate, too, that there are good lines of communication between artistic communities in Canada, generally speaking, which has led to a lot of opportunities for me across the country in the past year. For instance, my most recent play WROL (Without Rule of Law) just premiered at Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, earlier this month, and this week a circus show which I created text for is opening its run at Imago Theatre in Montreal. Since January, I’ve also worked with some pretty inspiring performers, directors and companies in Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto, so I recommend all of those places as well!
When did you first fall in love with playwrighting?
I’m not sure. I’ve always loved plays — my dad is a retired high school drama teacher, so I grew up with a keen interest and a lot of exposure to the art form. Like most young people interested in theatre, a lot of my earliest training was acting. I was also a voracious reader and complete fiction nerd.
Somewhere along the way — after a few different collaborative creation-based performance projects in university — I realized that I really loved creating the story (a lot more than I liked performing the story). After my undergraduate degree I interned for a few years with a leading new play development company here in Calgary, and then applied to the National Theatre School of Canada’s Playwriting Program. It’s very competitive, accepting only two new students nationally a year. I was accepted and lived in Montreal for three years while I completed the program. This is probably where I really truly ‘fell in love’ with playwriting. I got to spend all day every day working on only that. I got to learn directly from and work alongside some of the leading working theatre artists in the country. It’s hard not to really step up your game and your dedication in that context.
Truthfully, every time I get to meet a whole new amazing crew of artists through the rehearsal process of staging one of my plays is another moment that I fall in love with playwrighting. Playwrighting has made me so many friends and future collaborators I wouldn’t have ever met otherwise. It’s taken me so many places and provided me with so many opportunities. I couldn’t imagine spending my life doing anything else.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Nylon Fusion Theatre Company’s The Listening Room plays through Dec. 21 at the New Ohio Theatre in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
